Without the Oxford comma, the line "packing for shipment or distribution," could be referring to packing and shipping as a single act, or as two separate tasks.

The drivers argued that it reads as a single act, and since they didn't actually do any packing, they shouldn't have been exempt from overtime pay.

"Specifically, if that [list of exemptions] used a serial comma to mark off the last of the activities that it lists, then the exemption would clearly encompass an activity that the drivers perform," the circuit judge wrote.

According to court documents, the dairy, while denying any wrongdoing, believed further litigation would be protracted and expensive. The proposed settlement will be considered by a federal judge.

To prevent anymore Oxford comma drama, the Maine Legislature has since edited this exemption, replacing the punctuation with semicolons.